Jaci Dawn

Mrs. Collins, secretary to the governor, was mulling over what video to watch when Fred Gist knocked and entered her office. His face looked more like a fox’s face today than ever before, and she felt a cold shiver down her spine. He did not greet her, but tapped on the governor’s door himself, and let himself in. Fred never did things like that before, she thought. He had always been a pleasant, if not timid, little man.
A mouse jumped up onto her keyboard.
“Oh!” She jumped up and ran out of the office, looking for someone to ask to help her get rid of the rodent.

Fred Gist closed the door before he noticed the governor had his back to the desk and was apparently reading one of the books on government that he kept in the heavy bookcase at the back of his office.
“Are you ready to go over the speech I wrote for your press release about the executions this evening?”
The mayor nodded, but did not turn around. Fred walked up to the desk, assumed his beaten-down look, and asked, “Mind if I sit down?”
The governor shook his head and made an unintelligible, “Uh-uh.”
Fred frowned. He heard the secretary’s office door slam shut. That was odd: he suspected the woman of eavesdropping and leaking tidbits to wizards who had not yet been rounded up. “Well, I am here to talk about executing the leading wizards. I think we should plan on disabling all of the wizarding community, and you should retire and hand the reins of the office over to me.” He coughed and stared at his hands, waiting for the governor to get angry. “You did say I was more conniving these days.”
The governor’s chair slowly turned around.
Ella peered over the foot of the mirror. She could see the Yokai clearly. His three tails hung out behind the chair. I can do this. She grasped the box cutter.
Fred started with a shock. “What in blazes is going on here?!”
Ella raced forward, jumped onto the chair and slid the box cutter open. She sliced hard at the closest tail. The Yokai jumped up in pain, howling, but she hung on and sliced again. The tail fell off, and Ella grabbed the second tail.
The Yokai felt a sharp pain on his head as Aric lobbed a push pin downward. A barrage of rubber bands flew across the room before the Yokai could feel around to his tail. Ella climbed upward and made a deep cut on the outside tail.
The first group of boys, led by Mike, charged out from behind the small shelf unit and stabbed at the ankles of the little man who was batting at rubber bands and push pins flung at his head. Ella was sawing at something invisible behind the man. A single fox tail was on the floor, and the girls, led by Billie, swept it off to the side.
The man twirled around, trying to shake Ella off, but another fox tail landed on the floor. Madison led the second group of girls forward to sweep it off the floor. The second group of boys charged from behind the credenza, buoyed by a shout from Dylan as he charged: “Cowabunga!” Aric and Missy let fly two more well-aimed push pins.
Ella sliced into the third tail, but the Yokai managed to get a swat off in her direction, and she lost the box cutter. Mike’s group of boys charged in and stabbed with their paperclips. Richard jumped off the governor’s desk and ran to the boxcutter.
“Keep him busy! Don’t let him get out that door!” he cried.
Another barrage of rubber bands came from the shelf above the governor, and more push pins flew from above the large painting. Dylan’s boys charged in.
Billie let a group of girls forward and pushed a chair between the hopping mad Fred Gist and the door.
Richard jumped up onto the tail and handed the box cutter to Ella. “You must do this quickly, before he comes to his senses!”
Ella popped the cutter open and set to work, once again, hanging on for dear life. Another barrage of rubber bands and pushpins, another charge by one group of boy or the other. There was a loud banging going on now, too.
Mrs. Collins had returned with a security guard. They could hear the yells and howls of someone in the governor’s office, and fearing the governor was in trouble, they were now banging on the door.
The shouting at the door brought Fred out of his tortured mind set for just a moment, long enough to howl, “I am Kistune Yokai!”
Mrs. Collins and the security officer breached the door. Fred’s transformation happened right under Ella’s desperate cutting: Fred’s clothing disappeared, and she was hanging onto the back of a magical creature, a pale-colored Yokai. The fox turned and snapped at her with its white teeth. She screamed and pushed hard on the box cutter. The fox caught her hoodie in its sharp teeth and whipped her around in front of it. The box cutter clattered to the floor, once again.
Ella stared into the fox’s green eyes. It no longer reacted to the pushpins and barages of rubber bands, and the boys with the paperclips had stopped to stare.
Dish jumped from his perch onto the governor’s head and back flipped onto the desk where the cup of pens and the still-bloody letter opener waited. He grabbed the letter opener and flung himself onto the Yokai’s back.
“You do that,” the Yokai growled, “And I will eat this delicious mouse, clothes and all.”
“Do it!” Screamed Ella with all her strength.
Dish finished severing the tail. He turned to see the fox flip Ella up in the air and open its jaws to catch her. “Ella!”
A long shiver went through the Yokai as Ella did a slow somersault over its waiting jaws. Its eyes turned white, and its legs gave out. It landed in a heap, and Ella landed on its shoulder, and not in its mouth. It gave one long shuddering breath and breathed no more.

45,258 words